Operating as a sort of collaborative meta-brand, grouping a wide range of pursuits into a single, self-referential imprint, much of Études’ work is aimed at “hybrid conclusions,” and nowhere is this more evident than in their high-fashion apparel. Highly conceptual but always wearable, each is shown in unconventional settings and imaginatively documented, the shots functioning as both ads and artworks—an example being the limited-edition merchandise set exclusively made by Études Studio for KALEIDOSCOPE in Summer 2015, which was accompanied by an original photo shoot by Ari Marcopoulos. These methods carry over to the studio’s publishing arm, which to date has focused on a series of photo monographs called “The Blue Books.” Set in cobalt fabric, each volume shares a common format but varies in content, with work ranging from Nicolai Howalt’s car crash studies to Daniel Everett’s architectural abstractions. The Études aesthetic is nothing if not stylized: precise even in experimentation, they approach fashion as artists, art as designers, exhibition as ad men.

RIVIERA is a temporary bookshop hosted by Milan’s Istituto Svizzero (Swiss Institute, via Vecchio Politecnico 3) as the pivot of a versatile program punctuated by book launches, talks, performances, sales, long-term exhibitions. The display by Matilde Cassani, a gently sloping structure, offers an infrastructure for publications, works and visitors, as well as a landscape that ebbs and flows, assuming the function of a display fixture or a stage, depending on the different events.